Sometimes, the image from some movies may be too dark to understand anything from it and you will end up playing with the monitor's buttons, navigating through a clumsy menu and trying to adjust the gamma settings. Windows does not offer any help in this regard, so you can only turn to third party software. This simple application, called Gamma Control, will let you adjust the gamma level on your screen with simple hot keys.

Gamma Control can be installed like any other application, by going through a wizard's simple and straightforward stages. The setup file is less than one Mb large and you can install it on most Windows versions.

The application's small interface consists of three options for setting it to run at Windows startup, minimizing the interface automatically at startup and saving the gamma adjustments. These options can be enabled by clicking the check boxes next to them. If you click the Help button, beneath the options, a new window will appear, where you will find a list of shortcut keys for all the adjustments.

Using simple combinations on your keyboard, you can increase or decrease the gamma level or set it back the way it was. It is also possible to apply the last used gamma level and put the monitor in sleep mode, also with shortcut keys. If another program deactivates the hot keys, they can be enabled again by clicking an option in the tray icon's context menu.

Pros: While running in the background, the application will not have any impact on your computer's performance, even if your hardware is out of date. Gamma Control is free, and it can be installed in a matter of seconds.

Cons: It would have been useful if the application had made it possible to control other aspects such as colors or contrast.

If the image on your monitor is too bright or too dark, Gamma Control makes it possible to adjust this setting immediately from your keyboard.